CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A South African radio presenter appeared in court on Monday accused of recruiting men to fight for Russia in the war in Ukraine.
Nonkululeko Mantula, 39, was arrested alongside four men after a tip off, South African police said. She is accused of recruiting the four men and organizing for them to join the Russian army.
South African police said three of the men were detained while trying to board a flight to Russia via the United Arab Emirates. Police said they believed another person had already traveled to Russia after being recruited by Mantula.
It is illegal in South Africa to fight for another country’s army without permission from the government. The five suspects arrested in South Africa were ordered to be held in custody until a bail hearing next week.
The arrest of Mantula, a presenter on the state broadcaster’s SAFM radio station, came as police are separately investigating a daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma for allegedly tricking another 17 men into fighting as mercenaries for Russia in Ukraine.
The daughter, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, resigned as a lawmaker for her father’s opposition MK Party last week over the allegations. She was accused by her half-sister of duping the men into traveling to Russia under the pretense that they would receive security training that would help them secure jobs.
The South African government said this month that it received distress calls from the 17 South Africans, who had been forced to fight for a Russian mercenary group in eastern Ukraine and were now trapped there. Another South African political party alleged it had information that the men’s passports and clothes were burned and their cell phones were confiscated when they arrived in Russia.
The South African government launched a separate investigating into how the men came to be on the frontlines of the war and is working with international law enforcement agencies to repatriate them.
Russia has been accused of recruiting men from other countries to fight in the war under the pretext of offering them jobs. It has also been accused of tricking women from South Africa and other parts of Africa into working in Russian drone factories through social media campaigns promising them jobs in fields like catering and hospitality.
The South African government has warned people to be cautious of campaigns promoted by South African social media influencers promising jobs and study opportunities in Russia.
Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of the former president, has previously been accused of promoting Russian interests over the war in Ukraine. A 2023 report by the international non-profit Centre for Information Resilience said Zuma-Sambudla’s social media account was instrumental in spreading pro-Russia messages soon after its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
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